HMC’s new hospitals welcome first patients

Ahead of their official opening, Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Ambulatory Care Center (ACC) and Women’s Wellness and Research Center (WWRC) welcomed the first patients to their outpatient clinics - uro-gynaecology clinic at WWRC and podiatry clinic at ACC.

Additional clinics as well as surgical services will commence later this year at both facilities and gradually phased in ahead of their official opening. These new facilities join the Qatar Rehabilitation Institute (QRI) which welcomed its first patients last year.

The uro-gynaecology clinic is the first Women’s Hospital clinic to re-locate to the WWRC and will be followed by its oncology and colposcopy clinics. These together with additional clinical and surgical services will also be gradually phased in throughout the course of the year.

The WWRC will provide women in Qatar with specialised care through all stages of their lives. Once fully operational, it will offer a range of surgical and clinical services from preconception to childbirth, post-natal care and beyond.

The 72,000sqm facility which will replace Women’s Hospital as the largest tertiary hospital in the region is to be staffed by over 2,000 highly trained clinicians specialising in gynaecology, obstetrics, and newborn care. It will offer 240 private inpatient rooms, a significantly larger emergency room, seven operating theatres, 26 delivery rooms and 112 cots in the neonatal intensive care unit for the care of critically ill newborns.

The ACC, the other new Medical City hospital to welcome its first outpatients, will also gradually phase in clinical and surgical services throughout the course of the year. Podiatry services will be followed by audiology, ENT and gastroenterology outpatient clinics and a pre-admission anaesthesia clinic and surgical services will also follow.

When fully operational, the ACC will offer patients a new approach to surgical and clinical care in Qatar, providing day care surgery, some inpatient surgical care and clinical care in a single dedicated location. This means that within 23 hours of receiving surgery or a medical procedure, patients will be able to leave hospital and recover in the comfort of their own home, without the need for an overnight hospital stay.

The new facility will offer advanced clinical and surgical practices in the most technologically advanced operating theaters and treatment rooms. Where possible, this will include non-invasive techniques, robotic surgery and laparoscopic equipment to ensure a faster healing time and less stress.

Patients will also be supported on their journey to recovery by the ACC’s outpatient clinics, located in the same building. Clinical imaging, laboratory and pharmacy services will also be available.

Hamad al-Khalifa, HMC’s chief of Healthcare Facilities said, “Last year HMC welcomed the first outpatients to the QRI and we are proud to do the same at both the Ambulatory Care Center and the Women’s Wellness and Research Center. This is a significant step forward towards the full opening of our new hospitals, delivering both expanded capacity and some of the most advanced healthcare facilities in the region.”